Moving

by Bernadette Mayer

Illustrated

40 pages, paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Bernadette Mayer (born May 12, 1945) is an American poet, writer, and visual artist associated with both the Language poets and the New York School. Mayer's record-keeping and use of stream-of-consciousness narrative are two trademarks of her writing, though she is also known for her work with form and mythology. In addition to the influence of her textual-visual art and journal-keeping, Mayer's poetry is widely acknowledged as some of the first to speak accurately and honestly about the experience of motherhood. Mayer edited the journal 0 TO 9 with Vito Acconci, and, until 1983, United Artists books and magazines with Lewis Warsh. Mayer taught at the New School for Social Research, where she earned her degree in 1967, and, during the 1970s, she led a number of workshops at the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church in New York. From 1980 to 1984, Mayer served as director of the Poetry Project, and her influence in the contemporary avant-garde is felt widely, with writers like Kathy Acker, Charles Bernstein, John Giorno, and Anne Waldman having sat in on her workshops.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Restfulsimulation · Rating 5 out of 5]

“while we rubbed out the pentagon on the breathing floor”

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bernadette Mayer interests me. She even interests me alot. But I can't put my finger on why. I've read another bk by her called "Studying Hunger" that has a photograph of her face on the cover. It was taken while she was fasting. Her eyes seem very clear, she seems very alert. I've fasted many times, I know the feeling & recognize the expression. I find it fantastically attractive. "Moving" has that word on the front & "Jungle" on the back. An inside page has "Moving" & "The Jungle" so one might think this bk's called "Moving the Jungle" or "Jungle Moving" but, apparently, it's not. Anyway, I seem to have a strong emotional reaction to this: I see the cover, it's black & white, there's a framing device of a Kodak gray scale chart, Mayer's face is there, there's something about it that seems startlingly intelligent & alive. The bk is slightly oddly sized: 8 inches by 9&7/8 inches. It's like I immediately 'fall in love' w/ her based on non-pheremonal signals.

The form of the work starts out in a standard enuf 'poetic' way w/ line breaks & indentations that aren't paragraph based.. but by the 3rd page the form starts to vacillate between the initial form & borderline paragraphs. What happened? Whatever it is, it's somehow potent for me. I don't remember reading this at all but I'm sure I must have b/c ever since "Studying Hunger" Mayer has fascinated me. I'm sure everything that's passed by me by her I've read searching for some kind of clue, a clue about why she seems so alive to me..